If 317 

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AIvACHUA, 



THE GARDEN COUNTY OF FLORIDA. 



ITS RESOURCES AND ADVANTAGES. 



ISSUED BY THE 



ULSCHUfl COUNTY IMMIGRHTION flSSOC^STION. 



TME SOUTH PUBLISHING COIS-IPANV, 



ENGRAVERS AND PRINTERS, 76 PARK PLACE, N. Y. 



T 




JOHN W. ASHBY, President. K. M. CLAPP, Ass't Secretary. 

li. K. RAWLINS, Secretary. W. G. EOBINSON, Treasurer. 

CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

THOS. F. KING. W. G. ROBINSON. .JOHN B. DELL. 

NED E.FAKEELL. G. D. "WATSON. 

ALACHUA COUNTY 

IMMIGRATION ASSOCIATION. 

OFFICE OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 

GAINESVILLE, FLA. 



_ EXECUTIVE CONIN/LITXEE. 

Thomas F. King, Gainesville, Fla. 

"W. G. EoBiNSON, Gainesville, Fla. 

J. A. Carlisle, Gainesville, Fla. 

John W. Ashby, Gainesville, Fla. 
Dr. G. D. Watson, "Windsor, Fla. 

"W. L. Lambdin, Melrose, Fla, 

G. H. Ambrose, "Waldo, Fla. 

C. H. Fijeman, Fairbanks, Fla. 
J. J. Baer, Micanopy, Fla. 

J. C. Neal, Archer, Fla. 

J. A. "Williams, Newnansville, Fla. 
^ "W. F. Rice, Arredondo, Fla. 

A. Zi^iouEER, Eochelle, Fla. 

W. &. Moore, Hawthorne, Fla. 

J. Chesnut, Jonesville, Fla. 

J. B. Dell, Hague, Fla. 
"W. K. Cessna, Gainesville, Fla. 

H, G. Mason, Trenton, Fla. 

E. H. Hall, Grove Park, Fla. MM 

L. E. Thomas, Ft. White, Fla. ^ 

A. Hague, Hague, Fla. 

F. Polk, Franklin, Fla. 

Ned E. Farrell, Waldo, Fla. 

B. W. Powell, Micanopy, Fla. 

For information in regard to the County of Alachua, address the Secre- 
tary or Assistant Secretary or any member of the Executive Committee. 

2 



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The statements made in these folloiving pages in regard to the 
resources and capahilities of the County of Alacliua, are vouched for 
by the undersigned, uith iclwse compliments this booh is sent. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the preparation of the following pages I have endeavored to make a 
plain, unvarnished statement of facts in regard to the resources and capabili- 
ties of the County of Alachua. No effort has been made to draw a fancy 
sketch, or to indulge in rhetorical flourishes or poetic desci'iption, the desire 
has been to tell "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," with 
the assurance that a "cloud of witnesses" of unimpeachable character exist 
who will vouch for the correctness of every statement made. 

I regret that professional engagements have precluded me from devoting 
as much time as I would have liked to the work. During its preparation the 
Fall terms of the Circuit Courts have been in session, demanding the greater 
part of my time. 

The liberty has been taken of copying many paragraphs from the "Eden 
of the South,' the trade editions of the AlacMia J.drocaie and other similar 
publications, in fact my labors have been those of Editor and Compiler.' 

As neither the Association under whose auspices this pamphlet has been 
prepared nor myself has the slightest pecuniary personal interest therein, 
no motive can exist for presenting other than a truthful sketch. If after 
reading the following pages many may be induced to come to " the Land of 
Flowers " and make happy and prosperous homes in Alachua County, where 
they will be cordially received, we shall feel amply compensated for our 
labor. J. W. Ashby. 



Gainesville, Fla., January, 1888. 

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FLORIDA, 




Although it has been more 
than three hundred years since 
that portion of the new world 
known as Florida was first set- 
tled by civilized man, until with- 
in a comparatively recent period 
it has been almost an unknown 
country even to the American 
people, but during the past two 
decades the State has made 
rapid progress in wealth and 
population, "She is no longer 
unknown," but in all the ele- 
ments requisite and necessary 
for the establishment of happy 
and prosperous homes, she stands to-day the peer of 
any country on earth. 

The State is the largest east of the Mississippi 
river, having an area of 59,268 square miles. Of this 
the coast waters, bays, gulfs, sounds and harbors 
are put down at 1,800 square miles, rivers and smaller 
streams at 390, and lakes and ponds at 2,250, making 
the whole water surface 4,440 square miles, leaving 
54,828 square miles of land surface. 

Florida is principally a peninsula, shaped very much like the " boot of 
Italy," to which it is often and aptly compared by writers. Bounded by the 
Gulf of Mexico on the South and West, and the Atlantic Ocean on the East, 
the wonderful Gulf stream pours its mysterious volumes of heated water 
along its reefs and shores, equalizing in a wonderful degree the temperature 
of the breezes blowing across it. The State lies nearer the equator than any 
other portion of the United States or than the most Southerly part of 
Europe ; is on the same parallels of latitude as the great desert of Sahara in 
Africa, and the most populous portions of Persia and India. 

The equable temperature of Florida is one of the great excellencies of 
the climate. The thermometer rarely falls below 30 or 40 degrees, or rises 
above 96. The climate of the State is of course varied, as it extends thx-ough 

5 



six degrees of latitude. The greatest heats in summer are not equal to those 
experienced in New York and Boston. One writer, who is considered good 
authority, says that during his eighteen years of residence in Florida, the 
greatest heat was 96 degrees in the shade. The whole State, from October 
till June has been characterized as one continuous spring ! The nights, what- 
ever the character of the days preceding them are cool and refreshing. Both 
the winter and summer weather are delightful. The medical statistics of the 
Army show that the climate of the State as a whole, ranks pre-eminent in 
point of salubrity. 

The atmosphere of Florida is a medicine that has cured thousands of 
patients. For consumption and all pulmonary diseases whatever, for nerv- 
ous disorders and for the aged, whose vital forces begin to shrink before the 
austerities of Northern weather, the climate of Florida is a fountain of heal- 
ing and new life. 

Scattered all over Florida are men and women, healthy and vigorous, 
who, in years gone by, came to Florida as a last resource from death. There 
are many others, active business men some of them, who though well and 
strong, yet recognize the fact that their lease of life is a contingent one, de- 
pending simply upon their remaining in Florida. They dare not return to 
their old homes, where the enfemy still lies in wait for them. 

The advice of Horace Greely to young men to "go west and grow up 
with the country," was appropriate when uttered, but circumstances have 
since brought about a changed condition of affairs. The broad prairies of 
the west were then holding in their fertile soil rich harvests for the laborer. 
And the rapidly flowing tide of immigration furnished ample and remunera- 
tive markets for all they could produce. Now the order of things is changed. 
To-day there are large possibilities for young men, and older ones too, in 
Florida. The lands may be less productive than those in the west, but they 
respond cordially to kind treatment, and are cheaper. In no portion of the 
South are there better opportunities for men than in Florida. With even 
small means, energy and economy, investments may be made which, with 
proper attention, will in a few years become very profitable. 

The following article is taken from an editorial in the New Orleans Times- 
Democrat for 1886 : — 

"The State of Forida is boasting of the great progress it has made in 
every branch of industry, in wealth, population, etc., since the census; and 
it has good grounds for its boasts. Its progress in six years has been as rapid 
as any portion of the Union and challenges comparison with the most pros- 
perous States of the Northwest, while its educational advancement has been 
such as to show that it goes forward mentally and materially at the same time. 

" Take the population of the State, for instance. Itwas 269,493 in 1880 and 
342,451 in 1885, an increase of 28 per cent. This rate of increase will bring 
the total population of the State up to 438,337 by the next census year. 

" The advance in wealth, however, has been greater than in population, 
the assessment of the State being $70,667,458 to-day, against $31,157,846, an 

6 



increase of 127 per cent., more than doubling in six years. No other State in 
the Union has done as well as this in the midst of business depression. The 
showing is as good relatively as in the aggregate, the valuation per capita 
being $115.50 in 1880 and $206.63 in 1886. In this short period the average 
assessed wealth of every man and wom an in Florida has almost doubled. 

" Coming to the railroads we see the same improvement keeping march 
with the advance of the State. In 1880, Florida had but 528 miles ; to-day she 
has 1,688, an increase of 1,160 or 218 per cent. 

" The number of public schools in 1880 was 1,131, with an attendance of 
39,315, against 1,724 to-day, with 62,327 in attendance. 

" The bonded debt of the State is $1,067,400, the greater portion of which 
is held to the account of various educational and charitable funds, leaving 
only $472,700 held by outsiders, which sum is steadily diminishing. The State 
bonds are in demand at $1.12 to $1.25. 

" Eecapitulating, it is found that Florida has advanced — 

" In population, . . ... 28 per cent. 

" In assessed wealth, ..... 127 per cent. 

" In railroad mileage, .... 218 per cent. 

" In schools, . . .... 44 per cent. 

" In school attendance, .... 54 per cent. 

" This is as good a showing as any State in the Union can make, and full 
of promise for the future. It is not to be wondered at that lands should be in 
demand in Florida, and that immigration should be pouring into the State 
from all parts of the Union." 

The Constitution of the State of Florida provides for a liberal homestead 
exemption, the clause relating thereto being as follows : — 

" A homestead to the extent of one hundred and sixty acres of land, or 
the half of one acre within the limits of an incorporated city or town, owned 
by the head of a family residing in this State, together with one thousand dollars 
worth of personal property. And the improvements on the real estate shall be 
exempt from forced sale under process of any Court. And the real estate 
shall not be liable without the joint consent of husband and wife, when that 
relation exists. But no property shall be exempt from sale for taxes or as- 
sessments, or for the payment of obligations contracted for the purchase of 
said property, or for the erection or repair of improvements on the real estate 
exempted, or for house, field or other labor performed on the same. The ex- 
emption herein provided for in a city or town shall not extend to more im- 
provements or buildings than the residence and business house of the owner ; 
and no j udgment or decree or execution shall be a lien upon exempted proper ty 
except as provided in this article." 

This exemption inures to the widow and heirs of the party entitled 
thereto, and applies to all debts except those specified in the preceding 
paragraph. 

The following article has been contributed by the Eev. George T>. Watson > 
of Windsor, Florida: — 

7 



FliOEIDA AND SOUTHEBN CALIFOENIA COMPAKED. 

Having traveled through Southern California quite extensively, and also 
very largely through the State of Florida, it may not be out of place to state 
as briefly as possible a few points of honest comparison between the two 
localities. 

Nothing is to be gained by bearing false witness against either persons or 
localities. Some few persons in Florida have made very ignorant and foolish 
statements about California, while land agents and newspapers in California 
have published the grossest slanders and falsehoods about Florida. In some 
. things each State has superior advantages over the other. Strictly speaking, 
Florida is the Japan, while Southern California is the Spain of the United 
States. But to specify a few comparisons : — 

1. — In South California there are no forests ; the whole landscape is open 
to view, and all the improvements put upon the soil in the way of buildings, 
gardens and fruit trees show to the very best advantage. In Florida there 
are great forests which conceal from the eye of the traveller most of the 
choicest improvements in the State. If the vast improvements in Florida 
could be laid out in unobstructed vision it would be an astonishment to the 
beholder. 

2. — While California is a very large country, the great part of the southern 
portion is an uninhabitable desert. The improvable portion is a narrow strip ; 
hence the improvements are more compact and intensified, while in Florida 
the improvable property extends over a vast tract, and the towns, orchards 
and farms are scattered here and there over hundreds of miles in extent, and 
do not present that concentrated form which they do in some other sections. 

3. — The temperature of Southern California is less variable than in Florida. 
In the latter State it has more flexibility, owing to the frequency of rains, 
though it has no extremes of temperature. 

4. — In Southern California you buy the water ; in Florida you buy the 
fertilizer, with this difference, however, that the water supply of Southern 
California is absolutely limited, and beyond a certain population it will be im- 
possible to supply the demand, while the manure supply of Florida is utterly 
inexhaustible in the shape of muck and peat beds, which more and more are 
being used as the natural fertilizer of that soil. 

5. — The nights in Southern California are deleterious, and people there will 
warn you against being out at night, because at night the air comes down from 
the snow-capped mountains, and nothing is more trying to throat and lungs 
than the air of melted snow. In Florida the splendor of the day is not 
decreased by the dangerous nights. Most of the nights in Florida are exceed- 
ingly lovely, and healthy as well. 

6. — Owing to the absence of forests, lumber is very costly in Southern 
California, while for the opposite reason it is very cheap in Florida, so that it 
costs two or three times as much to build in the former as in the latter State. 

7.— Many will refer to the vast amount of waste land in Florida in the 
shape of swamps, everglades, sand-tracts, etc. But Southern California has 



a far greater waste in its rainless Mojave Desert. Southern California would 
gladly give millions of wealth for a few of the little lakes, tens of thousands 
of which begerm the territory of Florida. 

8. — John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost of the stars that "shed male and 
female light." Many critics thought this a whimsical idea, but scientific 
analysis has proved his poetry to be sober fact. The same remark may be 
extended to climates. The climate of Southern California is masculine, while 
that of Florida is feminine. The climate of Southern California will benefit the 
male sex more readily, while that of Florida acts more speedily upon females. 
Perhaps rheumatics may find relief in California, while the climate in Florida 
s nearly an infallible specific for catarrh and bronchitis, while many rhue- 
matics find entire relief in Florida, and many afflicted with catarrh find relief 
in California. 

9. — Fuel is scarce in Southern California ; the mountain sides are searched 
for roots for fuel, and one of the pursuits there is to grow timber for fire-wood, 
while in Florida it is so abundant that it costs little more than the cutting and 
hauling. 

10. — Southern California is superior for all variety of grapes and nuts, 
while Florida is far superior for all citrus fruits, and all fruits grown in Japan 
find their natural home in Florida. 

11. — Southern California is the land for the rich and luxurious classes who 
can spend thousands in boring artesian wells or tunneling the mountains for 
water supply. Property is very high there, and the laboring classes can very 
rarely buy themselves a home. Florida, while it possesses unlimited capabili- 
ties for the use of wealth, is emphatically the land for the poor, and no labor 
ing man in the State need go one month without owning a few acres sufficient 
for a home and orchard. I have never heard of a pauper in Florida. In 
Alachua County, one of the richest in the State, we have no poor-house and 
no one living on public chanty. 

12. — Southern California is a great wine country, which is a serious hin- 
derance to its moral development. Florida is largely a temperance State and 
a great many of its counties prohibit the sale of intoxicants. Among such 
counties is Alachua, the central county of the State. 

13. — California is far removed from the gr^at market of its products, while 
Florida is within twenty-four hours' ride of the metropolis of the Western 
Hemisphere and the great cities, with their aggregate millions of population 



ALACHUA COUNTY, 



Alachua County lies Just south of the 30th degree of north latitude and 
between the 82 and 83 degrees of longitude west from Greenwich, is bouiMed 
on the north by Suwannee, Columbia and Bradford Counties ; east, by the 
Counties of Clay and Putnam ; south by Marion and Levy, and west by 

10 





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Lafayette, from which it is separated by the Suwannee Kiver. Its population 
by the census of June, 1885, was 26,255, a gain of 9,793 over census of 1880. 
A larger increase and a larger population than any other County in the State. 
It has an area of 1,260 square miles or 806,400 acres. 

The County is 250 feet above the ocean's level, far enough South to be 
free from the ice and snow and chilling winds of the North, fanned by the 
gentle breezes which come wafted from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic 
Ocean, the distance to either being about forty-five miles. Although not be- 
low the mythical frost line, the winters are neither cold nor freezing, but 
generally cool and bracing, cloudy and disagreeable days being the excep- 
tion, fair and sunny ones being the rule, the summer being of longer duration 
but the heat not so oppressive as midsummer at the North. For natural 
beauties, fertility of soil, perfect drainage, a light, dry and invigorating at- 
mosphere, good water, good society, healthfulness and educational advan- 
tages the County is not excelled by any portion of the State of Florida. 

The great natural fertility and beauty of this section of the State is histo- 
rical. In the latter days of Spanish dominion in Florida, Fernando de la 
Maza Arredondo, a wealthy merchant of Havana, had established throughout 
the eastern part of the province, numerous trading posts, where the untu- 
tored savage exchanged his splendidly tanned buckskins for the fanciful 
devices and seductive wi-ho-me (flre-water) of the pale-faces. His goods 
were bartered in the remotest villages of the red man, and the barges of his 
agents and factors found out the secret ways of the hundred creeks that flow 
into the St. Johns river. ■ 

To these men the Indians imparted the information of a country in the 
interior, filled with grand forests, high-rolling hills, broad prairies, beautiful 
lakes and abundant streams whose united currents poured themselves into a 
wonderful chasm in the earth. A-la-chu-a, these red men called it, meaning 
big-jug, a jug without a bottom ; it is from this that the County takes its name, 
now pronounced Ah-lach-u-a. 

"With admirable enterprise and splendid courage Dexter and Wanton, 
the Saxon agents of the Spanish Arredondo, penetrated to this country and 
established near the wonderful " big-jug" their trading-post. Land was free 
in those days. One had only to find where the good lands were and he found 
little trouble in getting a royal patent. Being impressed with the beauty and 
fertility of this section, Arredondo & Son obtained a Spanish grant for about 
289,645 English acres of land within the territory now known as the County of 
Alachua. 

Alachua County is believed to be as healthy as any part of the United 
States. Fatal bilious fever is rare, except under great exposure to the malaria 
of low hammocks, rivers, etc., chills and fever are not frequent and are of the 
mildest and most easily managed types. Physicians all testify that diseases 
are less stubborn in Florida and less liable to terminate in death than the 
same kind of disease in higher latitudes. For a territory so large the death 
rate is exceedingly small. The pine lands, which are unusually healthy, are 

12 



nearly everj'where studded at intervals of a few miles with rich hammock 
land varying in extent from twenty to forty thousand acres. Residences only 
half a mile from cultivated hammocks in any part of Florida are notably free 
from malarial diseases, while residences on even the high hammock lands in 
Alachua County are generally found to be healthy. 

" Carl" Webber, in his excellent work, entitled " The Eden of the South" 
divides the lands of Alachua County into six classes, as follows : First, sec- 
ond and third class, pine lands, high and low hammock lands and swamp 
lands. The fertility and durability of even third class pine lands has been 
amply proven, and it has been established that pine swampy lands are not 
without great value. That which appears to consist of a white sand soil on 
third-class pine land is not all sand, which is seen by the eye. There is a mix- 
ture of fine comminuted bits of shells, or carbonate of lime, which furnishes 
the plants of such region with an important element of plant food. All second- 
class pine lands are productive. Underlying the surface is clay, marl, lime 
rock and sand. These lands are easily accessible, productive, cheaply fertil- 
ized by cattle, and, by reason of their supposed healthf ulness above hammock 
lands, are most readily settled upon. The fertility of first-class pine lands is 
indeed wonderful, while the limit of their durability is still unknown. The 
surface for several inches is covered with a dark vegetable mold, beneath 
which to a depth of several feet is a chocolate sand loam, mixed for the most 
part with limestone pebbles, and resting on a sub-stratum of marl, clay or 
limestone. The hammock lands are the most productive. Both the high 
and the low hammocks are generally admixed with lime, and the streams 
running through them are impregnated with it more or less. High ham- 
mock do not require ditching or draining. Low hammock generally require 
ditching to relieve them of a superabundance of water, especially during the 
rainy season. They have a deeper soil and are generally regarded as more 
lasting than high hammocks. Low hammocks are especially fitted for the 
growth of sugar-cane, as are also the swamp lands, which are held to be the 
most durable rich lands in Florida. In Alachua County hammock lands pre- 
dominate, more especially in the belt of land running through the center of 
the county from the northwest to the southeast portion. The open hammock 
lands are hilly and pebbly; the soil is a dark loam, underlaid with a choco- 
late colored, friable clay. On the high mixed pine and hammock lands most 
of the oldest, largest and most productive plantations are situated, although 
some of the old planters preferred the first-class pine land for general crop- 
ping, using for fertilizers cotton seed and pea-vines, by which means annual 
products were generally insured. 

There are in Alachua County, like all places of mixed people, representa- 
tives of nearly every sect in the Christian religion, and in the larger places a 
goodly sprinkling of Jews. The churches, however, are principally Baptist, 
Episcopalian, Methodist and Presbyterian, all of which are well supported 
and presided over by able preachers. 

The whitepeople of Alachua represent every State in the Union, from Maine 

13 



to California, and are in tlieir moral and intellectual status, of the advanced 
classes from the old States. Intelligence predominates in all the essential 
avenues of business, and in the principal occupations of life. The colored 
people have caught the spirit of advanced enlightenment and enterprise which 
prevails, and show remarkable traits of character, keeping up their churches, 
and being good citizens. There are to a slight degree distinct classes of society 
the same as found elsewhere, but there is no ostracism of settlers from other 
places, as the county is now largely composed of people who, within the past 
twenty years, have themselves settled here from other States. The future 
growth and prosperity depend upon an increase of such settlers, who bring, 
with new ideas, a new spirit of improvement and increased wealth. All 
worthy new comers are heartily welcomed and will meet with well wishes on 
everv' hand. The onl}^ division of the people is political, the same as elsewhere, 
but the same candid expression and the same freedom of speech is allowable 
here as in New England. 

Any man can succeed in this county by industi-y, economy, and applica- 
cation to business. Whatever subsistence he needs he can produce at home, 
and while doing this, he can care for his orange grove, orchard and vineyard. 
With a small sum of money, enough to purchase his land, clear and fence, 
put up his buildings and tide him over the first year without contracting debt, 
his rapid prosperity will be assured. There are thousands of people in the 
over crowded cities of the North now eking out a miserable existence whose 
interests might be promoted by coming to Florida. To those who have only 
a few hundred dollars to commence with, and who are not afraid to work this 
county affords an inviting field. Every man, no matter how poor, if economi- 
cal and industrious can secure for himself a home in Alachua County. While 
this is the case now, it is reasonably certain that in a few years the price of 
real estate will place it beyond the reach of those who need homes most. 
Every transfer made enhances the value of real estate in this county, and 
will continue. No better opportunity will ever occur than is now offered for 
the procurement of a home. 

In winter Alachua County is a sanitarium for invalids and a resort for 
sportsmen and pleasure-seekers. The air is dry, light and invigorating. The 
natural water sheds preserve the rainfall from standing and stagnating, or 
the sandy soil absorbs it like a sponge, and it is carried off by natu- 
ral under drains. All over the county there are numbers of large bearing 
orange trees that have never have been materially injured by cold. Facts 
show that counties situated south of Alachua have no practical advantage 
over this county in the successful cultivation of the orange ; but this has an 
incalculable advantage over most of them in adaptability to general farming 
and accessibility to the great commercial marts of the country. There are 
thousands of acres of valuable lands on the market, which can now be pur- 
chased at reasonable prices. There is enough available land to enable the 
settler to select a home where he and his family would enjoy health, and may 
surround himself with groves, orchards, vegetables and abundant field crops, 

14 



Those who simply pass through on the railroads see but little of what 
Alachua County really is. The roads have been built along the lowlands 
mainly, where tracklaying was easy, and only glimpses are afforded of hills 
and valleys bej^ond. One can readily understand why the tourist, who views the 
country from the window of a Pullman, should report Florida a land of sand, 
but take a team and drive throughout the county and the scene changes. If 
one could get a birds-eye view of many sections, the land would appear like an 
ocean of forest and farm, rolling in billows. North and west of Gainesville, 




H. F. BUTTON'S BESIDENCE, GAINESVILLE. 

the country is undulating, containing many hills and valleys. The fertility 
of the soil of Alachua was well-known in ante-bellum days, as the sad re- 
mains of many an old plantation testify. 

Here " Befo' de wah" many a Florida magnate, surrounded by his dusky re- 
tainers, ruled his wide domain, dispensing hospitality with a lavish hand and 
living and dying in peace and plenty. Only a few of them remain, no longer 
magnates, but prosperous planters still. 

The soil of Alachua County is admirably adapted to general farming. All 
the cereals do well. Tobacco from Havana seed has been cultivated wath 

15 



success. Oranges, peaches, pears, plums, gra;pes, strawberries, figs, melons 
and vegetables of every kind grow luxuriantly. By using improved methods 
of cultivation an abundant support for a family can be obtained from five 
acres of land, in growing early fruits and vegetables for the Eastern markets. 
It has been often said that cattle raising and dairy farming cannot be profita- 
bly conducted in Florida. The statement is certainly untrue, as far as Ala- 
chua County is concerned ; many of the planters have fine blooded stock and 
plenty of them, with an abundance of milk and butter. 

NATUKAL CUKIOSITIES OF ALACHUA. 

The magnificent lakes and many natural curiosities of Alachua County 
deserve special mention. 

Alachua Lake, about one and one half miles south of Gainesville, 
the county seat, is now a beautiful sheet of water coveringa large area. 
Not many years ago it was a large and beautiful prairie, known as 
Payne's prairie. It took its name from King Payne, an old Seminole 
chief of an. early day. This prairie was a great grazing ground 
for the Indians' cattle, and in later years, was devoted to a like purpose 
and for tillage by the whites. In those days thousands of cattle and 
sheep could be seen at any time enjoying the richness which mother 
earth supplies. The overflow of Newnans lake, which lies to the north 
of it, formed a stream which wended its way through the prairie and 
emptied itself into one of the curiosities of the State known as the Sink. 
There the waters found their way into some subterraneous passage whose 
mystery has not yet been solved. Some years ago this sink became clogged 
and the waters were forced to remain upon the surface, and overflowed the 
prairie, covering roads, cultivated fields and grazing grounds, creating an 
additional lake in the county, which is now one of its natural curiosities. The 
locality where the waters became clogged is still known as "the Sink," and 
is one of the most romantic picnic grounds and pleasure resorts in the State. 
About this prairie and among the lakes in this region, was the Indians' favor- 
ite fishing and hunting ground when they inhabited this part of the State. 

TuscAWiLLA Lake, about one mile square, is situated near the town of 
Micanopy, and was named for the daughter of the Indian Chief for whom the 
town was named. This lake, like Alachua lake, was created by the clogging of 
a sink, with the following differences. The sink was smaller, so that in rainy- 
weather a lake was created which would gradually disappear in a dry season. 
Desiring to prevent a temporary clogging of this sink the owner of the prop- 
erty some years ago endeavored to open this cavern and keep it open by log 
barriers. During the operation his logs caved in and the sink became per- 
manently clogged, and the lake consequently permanently located. 

Santa Fe Lake is a delightful body of water, and can boast of many 
fine residences upon its borders, as well as many magnificent orange groves. 
It is about nine miles long and four miles wide at its widest points. 

Lake Alto is about one mile east of Waldo. It is about one mile and a 
half long by one mile wide. Santa Fe and Alto Lakes are the highest bodies 

16 



of water in the County. Situated upon a liigli ridge or back of the peninsula, 
they have outlets extending both east and west to the Atlantic Ocean and the 
Gulf. 

Newnans Lake, five miles east of ^Gainesville, and between Santa Fe 
and Alachua lakes, is one of the prettiest bodies of water in the State. It is 
about six miles long by two and a half miles wide, has a good sandy bed and 
is surrounded by beautiful groves and rich hammock lands. 

Levey, Ledworth, Wauberg, and many other beautiful lakes are to be 
found in different sections of the County. 




c^^^Xi-WN Wa .^^ •"^^',^' 



H. F. BUTTON & CO.'S COTTON GIN, GAINESVILLE 

All the lakes named abound with different varieties of fish. Such is the 
mildness of the winters that they increase more rapidly than in colder lati- 
tudes and are caught at all seasons of the year. Among the varieties are 
the trout (black bass of the North), sucker, mud or black fish, bream, perch 
and pike. Many of these are not excelled, if equaled, in size, flavor, or num- 
ber in any part of the South. The trout is the largest, having been caught 
weighing twenty-five pounds. Its flesh is white, firm and delightful to the 
taste. Great quantities of fish have been caught in these lakes in seines, and 
shipped to other states, but this is now prohibited by law, and in consequenct^ 
they will multiply vastly and become inexhaustible. 

Devil's Mill Hoppek. About five miles north of Gainesville, over a 
pleasant road, is one of nature's grandest curiosities, called " The Devil's Mill 

17 



Hopper," covering about three acres on top, one hundred and fifty feet deep, 
with sides sloping like a bowl, Avhich are green with running vines, while 
ferns of different varieties, some of which are not to be found in any other 
part of the State, carpet the banks with their grateful foliage. Magnolias of 
large size, the thrifty live oak and its companion the water oak, and numer- 
ous varities of tre^s of hard wood, make a home for birds of bright plumage, 
and the mocking bird makes his presence known by his sweet song. Descend- 
ing by an easy incline through the foliage, one stands amazed at this wonder- 
ful freak of nature, and wonders if some magic charm has not been thrown 
around "him and opened the gate to some fairy scene or enchanted place. 
Numerous streams, some fifteen in number, starting from out the sides, 
looking like ribbons of silver, disappear, and again come out from their 
background of green, tumbling over the phosphate rocks, making cascades 
and pools and forming at the bottom of the hopper a small lake from which 
there is no visible outlet ; and although the streams have been continuously 
pouring down the mossy and fern clad bank beyond the memory of man, the 
little lake, with its finny inhabitants, undisturbed by the elements which 
formed it, does not raise or lower its surface, but keeps its level and goes 
where no man knows. 

Natukal Wells are most frequently found in the western part of the 
county, and are great wonders. These wells are as round and as perpendicu- 
lar as if they had been cut through the rock by the hand of man. The most 
of these contain water, but some of them are dry. In diameter they are 
about two and a half feet, and are from thirty to forty feet deep. The walls 
are of solid limestone. The water in them contains lime, and in summer is 
quite cool. The dry wells are perfectly safe to enter. In one, at least, par- 
ties can go down in it a distance of thirty feet, and then through an under- 
ground passage can come up out of another one, one mile away. 

SCHOOLS. 

The public school system of Florida was inaugurated by the State Con- 
stitution of 1868, and has steadily grown in favor and usefulness. Schools 
have been established in every neighborhoood, are provided with efficient 
teachers and are well attended. In addition to the public schools quite a 
number of private schools exist which are well patronized. 

EAST FLOKIDA SEMINARY, 

Located at Gainesville, the county seat, is a State school with an endow- 
ment derived from the sale of lands donated to Florida by the general gov- 
ernment. It is controlled by a Board of Education whose members are 
appointed by the Governor. By authority of the laws of Florida, the school 
is organized upon a collegiate and military plan and is authorized to grant 
diplomas and confer degrees. 

The academic building, erected by the citizens of Gainesville, is hand- 
some and commodious and furnished with the best educational appliances. 

The Dormitory or " Barracks," erected by the State of Florida, is an im- 
posing wooden structure, with rooms for the residence of instructors and 

18 



cadets, and all necessary attachments of infirmary, mess hall, kitchen, etc. 
Teachers and cadets live in this building and take their meals together in the 
mess hall. The cadets are thus at all times under the immediate supervision 
and control of the instructors and officers of the school. 

The academic department of the seminary is so organized as to prepare 
students for admission into the higher classes of colleges and universities, or 
to fit them for immediate entrance into the practical duties of life. The 
eleves of the school are now filling positions of trust and usefulness in all por- 
tions of the State. 

The military system is modeled after that of "West Point, and has been 
for the past five years under the control of an officer of the United States 
Army detailed by the Secretary of War for duty at this school. 

Cadets from Northern and Northwestern States, unable to attend school 
in their own sections on account of predisposition to disease, have found at 
the East Florida Seminary a combination of climatic conditions and of educa- 
tional work and military regime exactly suited to their constitutional needs ; 
and coming to the school as invalids they have invariably returned to their 
homes in the enjoyment of robust health. 

The seminary numbers among its students representatives from nearly all 
the counties of Florida east of the Suwannee river (its legal territory) and 
also from other States, and it is beyond question the most prosperous, success- 
ful and efficient school in Florida. 

Union Academy, a school for the education of colored people, is the 
largest in Alachua County. This school was organized under the auspices of 
the Freedman's Bureau iti 1866. The school, therefore, is in its twenty-second 
year. After being under its direction for some time, its management was 
transferred to the County Board of Education. The methods, classification 
and branches taught were such as are found in the country schools and 
ordinary town schools. This school has been thoroughly graded, and consists of 
Primary, Intermediate and Normal departments. It is located at Gainesville. 

TKANSPOKTATION FACIIjITIES. 

Next to the fertility of soil, purity of water and healthfulness, and the 
advanced social, educational and moral conditions of Alachua County, the 
facilities for transportation and travel are chief inducements to immigration. 
These, of late, have been greatly increased to meet the demand of growing 
population, agriculture and trade. The Florida Kailway and Navigation Com- 
pany's Kailroad, from Fernandina to Cedar Key, uniting the Atlantic and Gulf 
of Mexico, runs nearly east and west not far from the center of the county. 
Gainesville, and all the towns and villages along its route have rapidly im- 
proved since the construction of this road, to afford convenient centers of 
trade to surrounding neighborhoods as they have grown in numbers and pros- 
pered in agricultural pursuits. From Waldo a branch of the F. K. & N. runs 
south on the east side of Orange Lake to Ocala, Marion County, through an 
inviting section of Alachua County, which is being rapidly settled. From 
Gainesville, the county site, the Florida Southern Kailway runs east, with the 

19 



terminus at Palatka, on the St. Johns river. The Florida Southern crosses a 
branch of the F. K. & N. at Hawthorne, in this county, twenty-two miles east 
of Gainesville. Nearly midway between these two places, at Kochelle, the 
main trunk of the Florida Southern runs south, along the west side of Orange 
Lake, celebrated for its immense orange groves, budded on the forest of wild 
trees, and the production of enormous crops of vegetables. The Savannah, 
Florida and Western Kailway is thoroughly equipped, affording ample and 
first-class accommodations for the transportation of passengers and freight 
to all points North and Northwest. 

The Georgia Southern and Florida Kailway, which is now being constructed 
from Macon, Georgia, to Palatka, Florida, will pass through the eastern por- 
tion of the county. The officers of the Gainesville, Tallahassee and Western 




CORN AND COTTON FIELDS. 

Kailway Company express great confidence in being able to construct this 
road at an early day. This road, which would pass through the western por- 
tion of the county, would develop a fine timber and agricultural region, and 
would greatly advance the material interests ot the whole county. Charters 
are held for railroads from Gainesville to Kocky Point, in this county, and 
also from Gainesville to Windsor, on Lake Newnan, in this county. All these 
roads will be constructed in due course of time. Alachua Lake, Lake New- 
nan, Lochloosa Lake and Orange Lake, are all navigable, affording ample fa- 

20 



cilities for the transportation of the orange and vegetable crops produced 
around their borders. The Santa Fe river has a deep, navigable channel from 
Fort White to its entrance into the Suwannee, and the latter river, which is the 
western boundary of this county, is navigable for steamers from Cedar Key, 
on the Gulf. The Santa Fe canal, with the lakes connected thereby, gives 
transportation facilities from Waldo to Melrose and along the route. It can 
readily be seen, therefore, that Alachua is not second to any county in the 
State in the number, convenience and excellence of inland rail and water ways 
for public use. 



PRODUCTS OF ALACHUA, 



No county in the State of Florida, nor elsewhere, it is confidently be- 
lieved, can boast of a greater variety of products than the County of Alachua. 
Wheat is the only cereal that cannot be abundantly produced; corn, oats 
and vegetables can be raised in the greatest profusion for home consumption. 
So can stock of all kinds be reared in as great numbers as necessity may de- 
mand. Corn for meal, and hominy, oats, rice, sugar, syrup, tobacco and 
vegetables can be produced in larger quantities on any good or fertilized land 
than may be required for home use, and the excess can readily be sold for 
good prices. From this revenue the farmer can supply himself and family 
with flour, coffee and many luxuries. Potatoes, chufas, pinders, pumpkins, 
etc., will fatten all the hogs necessary for meat. Any farmer in Alachua, if 
he will be industrious, can make his occupation self-sustaining and inde- 
pendent of the fatal system of credit. He can easily produce all the bread, 
meat, sugar and syrup needful for his family and employees, and all the 
provender for his work-animals on his own land. Then he will be prepared 
to draw all the ready money he can out of fruits, vegetables and cotton, sup- 
plemented by sale of butter, eggs, poultry, lard, stock, etc. He will be en-, 
abled to improve his surroundings, purchase whatever else he may require, 
and live as independently as a lord. 

Vegetable raising is an industry which in Alachua County has grown to 
wonderful proportions within a few years, paying large profits of several hun- 
dreds of dollars per acre on crops that fortunately ripen and reach the mar- 
kets at the right moment. This County will undoubtedly produce not only 
the greatest variety of marketable and profitable crops of any region in the 
State, and is unexcelled by any State in the Union. And yet a large propor- 
tion of the visitors to the State go up and down the St. Johns river without 
dreaming of the productiveness of this region. 

The vegetables which can be profitably cultivated in Alachua County may 
be enumerated as follows : Artichokes, beans, beets, cabbages, celery, cu- 
cumbers, egg plant, Irish potatoes, lettuce, okra, onions, parsnips, peas, 
pumpkins, radishes, squashes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, turnips. 

21 



Cabbages form one of the staple crops for export to the Northern mark- 
ets. In the early vegetable line they stand first in importance. The acreage 
is every year increasing, in consequence of the certainty of both crop and 
profits. The yield is from one hundred to one hundred and fifty barrels per 
acre, and the price realized is from three to five dollars per barrel. 

CucuMBEKS have paid largely to the early grower and are esteemed as a 
profitable crop, the price realized being an average of two dollars a crate. 

Ibish potatoes have taken a very prominent place among the profitable 
early crops in Florida. On the best class of land about thirty barrels of first- 
class shipping potatoes per acre are raised, which, getting into the Eastern 
markets about the time the old crop is exhausted, have been netting over cost 
of shipping and selling, about four dollars per barrel. These figures have 
been very much exceeded in many localities. 

Sweet potatoes come nearer being a universal crop in Florida than any 
other the soil produces. They are easily propagated from the roots, sprouts 
or vines, and sometimes the seed, though the latter mode is rarely used. 
From its easy propagation and cultivation, its large yield and the variety and 
excellence of the dishes prepared from it, it is one of the indispensable crops. 

Beets, beans, egg-plant, tomatoes, and very many other vegetables, are 
all profitable crops and grown in very large quantities for shipment to the 
Northern markets. 

Those who have never investigated the subject can form no adequate idea 
of the amount raised or of the profitableness of vegetable culture in the State 
of Florida. Many persons are not only making money but are rapidly becom- 
ing rich from raising vegetables for the Northern markets. 

The importance of market gardening to the State is almost incalculable. 
It was first started but comparatively a few years ago as an experiment, but 
has become a leading industry. Orange groves may be planted on the same 
land with vegetables, thus securing for a man of small means a future period 
of independence and enjoyment, while present needs are being provided for. 
It is an industry which is attracting to the State a class of immigrants whose 
intelligence and industry is rapidly converting the great wilderness heretofore 
existing into most valuable estates, adding greatly to the growth, pros- 
perity and power of the State. 

No section of the State of Florida offers such great advantages for vege- 
table growing as the County of Alachua, and no other county in the State is 
engaged so extensively in the business. Alachua may properly be denomin- 
ated the garden County of Florida. 

Other products of the soil, which have not been referred to, and which 
may be cultivated with profit, are as follows : —Arrow-root, barley, castor- 
beans, cassava, chufas, coontie, corn, cotton, fiber plants, grass, goobers, 
melons, millet, oats, pinders, rice, rye, sorghum, sugar-cane, tobacco and 
wheat. 

Castok-beans can be as successfully raised in Alachua County as in any 
country in the world. They are always in demand, and command good prices. 

22 



The farmers of Alachua can produce castor-beans on their poorest lands and 
realize handsome returns in cash. There is no substantial reason why their 
production could not be made at once one of the chief industries of the farm- 
ers of the county. There is no doubt of the fact that castor-beans can be 
produced in enormous quantities, and there seems no doubt of the further 
fact that a ready market could be found at remunerative prices. Those who 
engage in this enterprise first will in all probability be well paid for their 
trouble. 

Corn is easily and cheaply made and is of superior quality, both for 
bread and stock. Alachua County could produce all the corn needed for the 




£N THE CANE PATCH. 



entire peninsula of Florida. Sixty bushels per acre has often been raised, but 
soil, cultivation, season and manure make a very wide difference in the indi- 
vidual yields. Fifteen bushels will be a fair average of the actual crop. The 

23 



cultivation of corn would be very profitable, if the same effort was made as 
is done with other crops. Formerly, no corn was shipped into this county; 
but as other crops, which bring ten times as much per acre, give money to 
pay for corn, many persons do not plant it except for table use. Two crops of 
corn can be grown on tiie same land in one year. A. variety of early corn is 
planted in February or early in March, which ripens by the middle or end of 
May, if seasons are favorable. 

Cotton. — The long cotton of Florida has come to rank in fineness and 
quality with the cotton grown on the Sea Islands of South Caiolina and 
Georgia, which States for a hundred years have grown the finest produced in 
the world. There is no country so well adapted to the growth of this par- 
ticular staple as Florida, and the numerous growers of cotton all over Alachua 
County have shown themselves adepts in its culture. It will not grow on 
the uplands of Georgia and South Carolina without losing its distinctive 
quality and becoming short and coarse. The peculiar geographical position 
of Florida, lying, as it does, between the Atlantic and Gulf, its shores washed 
by the Gulf Stream, produces an atmosphere adapted to the improvement of 
the length, strength and fineness of the staple nowhere else to be found. 
Hence Florida, by nature, is favored above all other countries for producing 
this beautiful staple, that is spun into hand and sewing-machine thread, from 
No. 8 to No. 500, into most beautiful laces, wherewith ladies add to the taste 
and elegance of their dress, and so deftly mixed and woven into the finest 
silks, satins and fine velvets, that it is impossible to tell, and only the best 
detectives can detect it. Lovely women, with elaborate and costly-made silk 
dresses, do not know that much of the material is Florida long cotton, which 
makes the silk a better article and makes it wear and last longer and, to all 
appearance, is as pretty, as good and elegant as the best from the looms of 
Lyons, France. Two hundred pounds of lint-cotton per acre has been grown, 
but about one hundred pounds would be an average crop without fertilizing. 
■ The price varies from eighteen to thirty-five cents per pound. 

Oats is a reliable and important crop, yielding on good average soil, 
properly prepared, from fifteen to forty bushels per acre. 

Bice is a crop that is common, but not grown in the county on as large a 
scale as its value would justify. The varietj^ known as upland rice is best, 
and yields from twenty to one hundred bushels per acre. The lack of facili- 
ties for cleaning has hitherto held this crop in check, but the introduction of 
rice machinery has given to it a new impetus, and in future a much larger 
crop than ever before will be raised. 

SoKGHUM does not form a staple crop, although it offers many points that, 
if utilized, would pay well. One reason for this is, that it has been regarded 
as a competitor of the sugar-cane ; in this it does certainly fail. Sorghum can 
not compete with tropical cane, if sugar is to be the sole product, but sorghum 
has been raised with paying success on its own merits, and offers, as a syrup- 
producing plant, the possibility of having new syrup at a time when tropical 
cane is still green. In addition to this, two crops a year have been raised, one 

2i 



planted in April and cut in July, and another planted in July and cut in Octo- 
ber, both yielding syrup, seed and fodder, the seed being of itself equal to an 
ordinary crop of corn from the same land. 

StTGAR-cANE is a regular crop, every farmer having his patch varying 
in size from one-half to three or four acres. Sugar is not generally made, as 
syrup from Florida cane is of superior quality and commands a good price, 
From ten to twenty barrels of syrup maybe produced from one a-cre. 

Tobacco has for many years been raised on a small scale, hut the recent 
introduction of fine seed has demonstrated that in Alachua County can be 
raised a tobacco equal to the far-famed Cuba cigar leaf. Trial crops during 
the past year have instructed the people, and many farmers are preparing to 
plant largely. It promises to pay exceedingly well where intelligent care 
is used. 

WHEN AND WHAT TO PLANT. 



Below is given briefly what 
may generally be adopted for this 
County : — 

January. — Plant Irish potatoes, 
peas, beets, turnips, cabbage and 
all hardy or semi-hardy vegetables. 
Make hot beds for pushing the more 
tender plants, such as melons, to- 
matoes, okra, egg-plants, etc. Set 
out fruit and other trees and shrub- 
bery. 

Febexjaky. — Keep planting for 
a succession, same as in January. 
Plant vines of all kinds, shrubbery 
and fruit trees of all kinds, especi- 
ally of the citrus family, snap-beans, 
corn; bed sweet potatoes for draws and slips. Oats may also be still sown, 
as they are in previous months. 

Makch.— Corn, oats and planting of February may be continued. Trans- 
plant tomatoes, egg-plants, melons, beans and vines of all kinds. Mulberries 
and blackberries are now ripening. 

APEiii. — Plant as in March, except Irish potatoes, kohl rabi, and tur- 
nips. Continue to transplant tomatoes, okra, egg-plants; sow millet, corn, 
cow-peas, for fodder; plant the butter-bean, lady peas; dig Irish potatoes, 
onions, beets, and usual early vegetables should be plenty for the table. 

May. — Plant sweet potatoes for draws in beds ; continue pJantingcorn for 
table; snap-beans, peas and cucumbers ought to be well forwas^d jf^r ]\se; 
continue planting okra, egg-plants, pepper and butter-beans. '■ -' ' '■ v 

25 




June. — The heavy planting of sweet potatoes and cow-peas is now in order ; 
Irish potatoes, tomatoes and a great variety of table vegetables are now 
ready, as also plums, early peaches and grapes. 

July. — Sweet potatoes and cow-peas are safe to plant, the rainy season 
being favorable ; grapes, peaches and figs are in full season ; orange trees may 
be set out if the season is wet. 

August.^— Finish up planting sweet potatoes and cow peas ; sow cabbage, 
cauliflower, turnips for fall planting ; plant kohl rabi, rutabagoes ; trans- 
plant orange trees and bud ; last of the month plant a few Irish potatoes 
and beans. 

Septembek.— Now is the time to commence for the true winter garden, 
the garden which is commenced in the North in April and May. Plant the 
whole range of vegetables, except sweet potatoes ; set out asparagus, onion 
sets and strawberry plants. 

OcTOBEK. — Plant same as last month ; put in garden peas ; set out straw- 
berries and cabbage plants ; dig sweet potatoes ; sow oats, rye, etc. 

NovEMBEB. — A good month for garden. Cuntinue to plant and trans- 




plant, same as for October ; sow oats, barley and rye for winter pasturage or 
crops ; dig sweet potatoes ; house or bank them ; make sugar and syrup. 

December. — Clear up generally ; fence, ditch, manure and sow, and plant 
hardy vegetables; plant, set out orange trees, fruit trees and shrubbery. 
Keep a sharp look out for an occasional frost. A slight protection will pre- 
vent injury. 

It will be seen from the above that there is no month in the year but what 
fresh and growing vegetables can be had for sale and domestic use. This lat- 
ter is a large item in the expense of living. The soil is so easily worked, so 
easily cultivated, that most of garden work can be performed by even delicate 
ladies and youn^ children of both sexes. No frozen clods to break or rocks 
to remove., A garden once put in condition, properly managed, will produce 
abundantly and constantly. The rapid growth assures large and tender vege- 
tables and early and luscious fruits. A single season will afford strawberries 

26 




'"WAY DOWN UPOX DE S'WANNEE RIBBEK. " 



from the setting out, ripe figs from two-year-old cuttings, grapes the second 
year, peaches the second and third years ; oranges from the bud from three 
to five years. At a little cost, a little care, one can literally sit under his own 
vine and fig tree and enjoy fresh-plucked fruit the whole year. 

HONEY. 

One of the undeveloped industries of Alachua County is the honey busi- 
ness. All over the county wild bees abound and many a hapless colony 
has had its home chopped dov\n and robbed of its sweet treasure and then 
left to shift for themselves. There are few things that will give as good re- 
sults for capital invested, if properly applied, as this industry. 

Honey is rapidly becorning a staple product of Alachua County, whose 
flora seems specially adapted to the propagation of bees. Even in the winter 
months there is a supply of flowers quite sufficient to support the hives. 
This permits heavier tolls to be made on them, as less honey must be left to 
feed during winter. 



STOCK RAISING. 



This in Alachua County is one of the most profitable incidents to a farm 
life. It is not in any instance made an exclusive business, but thousands of 
domestic animals are raised every year.l 

Horses are raised on the prairies, and co&t nothing for food ; winter and 
summer they feed on a natural pasturage. The native horse is not large, 
but is a tough, useful, healthy and reliable animal. 

Cattle are allowed to run in the open ranges, winter feeding or protection 
of any kind being an exception to the rule. Kemote from the town and vege- 
table growing region are large tracts of land which are only utilized for stock 
raising. There is a cash market always open for all cattle which are offered 
for sale. 

Sheep pay very well, as feed costs nothing and as no protection is re- 
quired even in winter. It is readily seen that the wool and all increase is 
profit. No very large fiocks are kept. 

Hogs are numerous and of all varieties, from the " razor back " to pure 
Essex, Berkshire, &c. Alachua, in days gone by, made all her pork and bacon, 
and now many farmers make a full supply every year. All might readily 
do so. 

liUMBEK. 

The Lumber business in Florida is conducted upon an exten- 
sive scale. Experimental test has already determined . the timber from 
Florida to be the best upon the market and the mills and shipments are in- 
creasing by a heavy percentage. Even Mexico and Central America are be- 
ing supplied with cross-ties for their railroads from Florida pine. In Alachua 
County large areas exist of magnificent timber. In addition to the pine there 
are cypress, oak, cedar, hickory, red bay and other woods which are val- 
uable. 



FRUIT CULTUEE. 

To the orchardist as well as the horiculturLst the County of Alachua 
is an Inviting field. The soil is peculiarly adapted to the production of 
fruits of almost all descriptions. The number of persons at present engaged 
in the industry is far less than it should be, considering the rare opportunity 
offered for money making by the cultivation of fruits for shipment to North- 
ern and "Western markets. This County and State should be a land of fruits, 
for the land and climate are adapted to them and the absence of severe cold 
in the winter exempts them from the hazards that attend fruit raising in the 
Northern States. 

The fruits which may be successfully grown in Alachua County are as fol- 
lows : Bananas, blackberries, blueberries, citron, figs, grapes, grape-fruit, 
guavas, Kelsey plum, lemons, huckleberries, Japan persimmon, Japan plum, 
nectarines, olives, oranges, peaches, pears, pecans, pomegranates, quince, 
shaddocks, strawberries and walnuts. 

Oranges can be more extensively and profitably grown in Florida than 
in any other State in the Union, and from the advantages which the State en- 
joys in certain peculiarities of climate, soil and season, it is more than likely 
that it will ever retain a superiority over any other section of the country in 
its productions. Some of the largest and most successful orange groves in the 
State are in Alachua. A number of wild sour groves, which are most hardy, 
have been transformed by budding into the sweetest of fruit, while the many 
young seedling groves coming into high bearing all over the county attest 
their power to withstand severe frosts like those of the past year or two. 
Experienced growers are satisfied that the cold, so much talked of and feared, 
is rather beneficial than otherwise to orange groves. The cold is sure death 
to the insects that ravage the tree, and while it causes the trees to throw off 
their leaves, the fruit is much better the following year. 

The history of orange growing in Florida, as an industry, is compara- 
tively recent, but the profitableness of the business has been practically 
demonstrated. There is no shadow of doubt as to the really sure and safe 
ground for the investment of untold thousands of dollars in making orange 
groves. 

One thousand dollars per acre per annum has time and again been real- 
ized from this business. Indeed, double that amount per acre has been fre- 
quently made ; and with proper cultui'e and fertilization, where the latter is 
needed, $1,000 per acre may be regarded as an available crop. 

An undoubted, authority on orange culture in Florida says : ' ' Orange 
culture will pay beyond any other agricultural pursuit, even should the price 
fall as low as 75 cents per box. When reduced to that price fifty millions of 
boxes would not over-supply the demand of the present population of the 
United States and Canada. There are thirty States producing apples and 
peaches, and yet both these crops, which have to be marketed within a few 
weeks or months, are grown with profit. "With such facts before us, we have 
nothing to fear as to over-production of the orange. The excellence of the 

29 



T'lorida orange is now so generally known that many other oranges are sold 
under that name." 

An unanswerable argument in favor of the immense profits to be realized 
from orange culture is to be found in the fact that very many persons in Florida 
now in the enjoyment of opulence are indebted alone for their fortunate 
condition to this golden fruit. Fortunes have not only been made but are yet 
to be made by the industrious horticulturist in the County of Alachua ; but in 
this, as in all other vocations of life, success is to be attained only by ener- 
getic effort. 

Peach growing is becoming one of the most important industries of 
Alachua, and is destined to be one of the most profitable. With proper care 
and cultivation, quite a number of varieties will fruit annually and prolific- 
allj'. It is the early varieties of peaches which pay best, as they may be 
^rown so as to reach the New York market in May, where they have brought 
most fabulous prices. The first of these early varieties is the Pien-tau, a 
Chinese fruit, which ripens about the first week in May. It is a hardy and 
rapid grower and is a fruit of delicious flavor. This is followed by the honey 
peach, about three weeks later. The Florida native and other varieties of 
peaches do well. 

Peaes have been found to succeed well. Of the varieties grown the 
LeConte is one of the most popular, it being a vigorous grower, attaining 
large size, coming early into bearing and being said to be absolutely blight 
proof. Very many entertain the opinion that a pear orchard will prove as 
profitable as an orange grove, and many acres of this delicious fruit have been 
and are being planted. 

Gkapes, both of the native and foreign varieties, succeed well and have 
paid handsome profits to those engaged in their culture. It has been demon- 
strated that wines of the finest variety can be manufactured from grapes 
grown in Florida, but it is not only in the making of wine that grape culture 
here has been found a paying business, but grapes shipped to the Northern 
markets bring handsome returns. 

PiiUMS of several varieties are grown. Of these the variety known as 
Kelsey's Japan plum deserves special mention. It comes into bearing within 
two or three years, and in productiveness is unsurpassed. The fruit is very 
large in size, being from seven to nine inches in circumference, attractive in 
appearance, excellent in quality, melting, rich, and juicy, 

Japan Persimmon has been grown to some extent and has given such 
general good satisfaction that it will become one of the leading fruits. The 
merits of this fruit are the early bearing age of the tree and its wonderful 
fertility. In shape and general appearance it resembles a large, smooth 
tomato. The fiesh is soft, with a pleasant, sweet, slight apricot flavor. Some 
specimens are seedless. 

Steawbeekies of the finest flavor are produced in all parts of the 
County. They are easily cultivated .and the yield per acre is frequently as 
high as four thousand quarts. Within the past two or three years the devel- 

30 




A HAMMOCK HOME. 



opment of this industry has been remarkable. It is believed to be within 
the bounds of reason to say that not less than five hundred thousand quarts 
of strawberries were produced in Alachua County in the season of 1887. The 
fruit comes into the marliet too early to find competition from other states, and 
Florida strawberries enjoy a monopoly in the eastern sea-board markets for 
many weeks during January, February and March. The production and 
shipment of the berries North has assumed such proportions as to secure the 
provision by the transportation companies of suitable refrigerating cars for 
their preservation in transit. 



CITIES, TOWNS AND POST OFFICES. 



Alachua, a station and post office, on the Savannah, Florida and West- 
ern Railroad, fifteen miles north of Gainesville, contains two Saw-Mills, two 
Cotton Gins, two Grist Mills, and a Shingle Machine, all in good running 
order, and about one dozen dwelling houses. It is the center of a first-class 
agricultural region. 

Akkedondo is a shipping station on the Florida Eailway and Navigation 
Company's line, six miles south-west from Gainesville. It is settled for some 
miles around by farmers and vegetable growers, whose products are among 
the richest revenues to the County. The lands are rich and fertile, respond- 
ing with alacrity to cultivation, and yielding rich returns. The soil is largely 
mixed with finely comminuted bits of shell or corbonate of lime, which fur- 
nishes a natural fertilizer almost exhaustless. Thousands of crates of vege- 
tables are annually shipped from this station to the Northern markets. The 
population of Arredondo is about two hundred. The place has three Stores, 
two Churches and School buildings. 

Akchek is a business town on the Florida Railway and Navigation Com- 
pany's line, near the southern line of the County. It has nine general stores, 
one Drug store, two Cotton Gins, two Smith shops, one Wagon shop, two 
white and three colored Churches, one white and two colored Schools. Itjis 
in Section 17, Township 11, South of Kange 18, East, on the western edge of 
a large area of first-class pine land, rolling, and heavily timbered. There is 
•clay within two or three feet of the surface and lime rock from five to 
forty feet below the clay, beneath which is a quick sand affording a never 
failing supply of good water. Owing to the nearness of clay to the surface 
this region is specially adapted to the growth of pears, peaches, plums and 
grapes. Of these fruits there are now growing in the vicinity 15,000 pear 
trees, 1000 peach trees and an increasing number of persimmon and plum 
trees set in orchard. Vegetable growing is quite an industry, from 15,000 to 
25,000 bushels of beans, cucumbers and tomatoes being annually shipped 
from this point, generally realizing good prices. Large crops of corn, cow 
peas, pinders, etc. are grown for home use, while cotton and syrup are 
the usual staples. The whole section is regarded as remarkably healthy. 

32 



Baktkam is located in tlie higii pine lands in the southwestern part of 
the County. The nearest railroad station is Bronson, on the Florida Rail- 
way and Navigation Company's line. 

CampviliiE is situated on the Florida Eailway and Navigation Com- 
pany's line, five miles from Hawthorne, and nine miles from Waldo, on that 
high rolling ridge of land lying between Newnansville and Santa Fe lake. 
The population is about two hundred and fifty. It has one church, three 
stores, a literary society, a good school, a saw mill, and brick yard with a 
daily capacity of 50,000 brick. Where seven years ago, nothing but pine trees 
and wire grass grew, now there are over one hundred and fifty acres covered 
with beautiful orange, pear, peach and other fruit trees. The land is highly 
adapted to farming purposes, such as growing sugar cane, corn, oats, Sea- 
Island cotton and all kinds of vegetables, and is capable of being brought to 
a high state of cultivation, as it is of such a nature as to retain all manures 
not required to grow the crops, being what is known as a light gray soil, 
underlaid with a yellow subsoil to the depth of about two feet and then good 
solid clay. The best of all that is claimed for this section is its healthf ulness. 

Eakleton is beautifully located on the west shore of Lake Santa Fe. 
Being situated on a high ridge some two hundred feet above sea level, it is 
favored with a good breeze from the ocean, which not only makes it a healthy 
place but also enables the people to pass the summer months without suffer- 
ing much from the heat. It has a daily mail, also daily communication witli 
Waldo and Meh'ose by steamer. Visitors will find this place provided with a 
good hotel, general store, school and church. Sportsmen find a good op- 
portunity to enjoy black bass fishing and duck shooting. Quail and other 
game are also plentiful. Some of the finest and largest orange, peach and Le 
Conte pear trees can be seen in and around the place. There is also a large busi- 
ness done in raising early vegetables and strawberries for the Northern mar- 
ket. Within the past few years the raising of grapes, both native and foreign 
varieties, has been very successfully tried. Not only have grapes brought good 
prices in the market but also the wine made from them is of an excellent 
quality. Earleton is about four miles southeast of Waldo, and within six 
miles of Melrose. 

EviNSTON is an incorparatedtown on the Florida Southern Railway. It has 
one store, depot, post office, telegraph office, express office, two churches, a 
classical school and private boarding houses. The surrounding country is 
very fertile. Vegetables of every variety and general field crops are grown 
in great abundance. Oranges, peaches, grapes, pears and plums are success- 
fully grown and attain great perfection . 

Fairbanks. — This picturesque little town is located about six miles north- 
east of Gainesville, on the line of the Florida Railway and Navigation Com- 
pany. One admirable feature of the town is its wide, straight streets, all 
beautifully planted with umbrageous trees ; for while the inhabitants would scoff 
at being termed lazy, they very sensibly believe in planting shade trees in the 
streets. It is surrounded with a fine, fertile country, all of which is well 

33 



adapted to the growth of the orange as well as vegetables and all tropical fruits 
Cotton, corn, oats, etc., are all cultivated with great success. Among the 
public improvements is a handsome Episcopal Church, of which denomination 
there is quite a strong and flourishing congregation. There is talk of erect- 
ing both Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in the near future. A free 
school also flourishes in this place, the attendance of pupils being large. 

FoET Fannin is located "'way down upon de S'wannee ribber," in the 
western extremity of the county. The country is sparsely settled, game is 
abundant, and some of the finest timbered lands in the county are to be 
found in this locality. 

Fkankland, in the western part of the county, is in the midst of splendid 
yellow pine timber. The lands are well adapted to the growth of corn, cotton, 
peas, sugar-cane, etc. Oianges, peaches, figs, persimmons and the other fruits 
succeed well. The range for stock is excellent and game abundant; some of 
the finest lime rock is found in this locality. There are at Frankland post- 
office, store, saw and grist-mill and cotton-gins. 

Gainesville, the County seat of Alachua County and one of the most 
important interior towns of the State, has a population of about five thousand 
persons, whose hospitality and social qualities are all that could be desired. 
In point of health it has no superior in the State. On every hand are seen 
unquestionable evidences of the rapid development of the material interests 
of the city, in the center of which stands the Court House, one of the largest 
:and handsomest in the State. The church facilities are ample and afford the 
best possible evidence of a religious and moral people. The wholesale trade, 
although in its infancy, shows unmistakable evidence of the fact that it is 
likely to grow speedily into large proportions. The importance of Gainess- 
ville as an educational center, commercial center, railroad center and as a 
place of residence, has and will continue to attract attention. Compared 
with a few years ago it is a new city. A majority of the business houses are 
substantial brick buildings and many of the private residences will compare 
favorably with those in any other part of the South. The city is orderly and 
the community law-abiding, fraternal and enterprising. 

The transportation facilities are excellent. Eailroads run north, south, 
east and west from the citj'. First-class public and private schools 
afford superior educational advantages. The United States Land Office is also 
located in this city. The lands around Gainesville are equal in productive- 
ness to any in the State. 

GoKDON is situated a little to the east of La Crosse, and the soil partakes 
of the characteristics of that locality. The people are principally farmers, 
and generally prosperous. 

Gracy is a station on the Savannah, Florida and "Western Kailway, about 
twenty miles northwest of Gainesville ; has a sawmill, store and several 
dwelling houses. It is the center of a finely-timbered pine country. 

Geove Park, a station and post-office on the Florida Southern Kailway, 
fifteen miles from Gainesville, has a population of 250, two stores, hotel, 

34 




schoolhouse, church, saw 
and planing mill ; it is regu- 
larly laid out in blocks -with 
streets 60 to 80 feet wide, 
well graded, and on many 
of them are set live oak 
trees. The soil in the vicinity is of good quality, a dark gray sandy loam, 
with clay subsoil ranging from 10 inches to 5 feet below the surface. This 
locality is noted for its healthfulness. 

Hague is a new town situated on the Savannah, Florida and Western 
Railway, eleven miles northwest of Gainesville and five miles south of 
Newnansville, the new and old county seats of Alachua County. It contains 
a depot, express office, post-office, three stores and three churches. The 
people are moral and industrious, and are zealous supporters of education. 
. The health is as good as in any part of the State. Tropical fruits, such as 
oranges, bananas, Japan persimmons and grape fruit mature well, and 

35 



peaches, pears, plums, cherries, grapes, mulberries and huckleberries grow 
in fine quality and quantity. Vegetable culture pays exceedingly well. From 
this station more vegetables are shipped to the Northern markets than from 
any other point between Gainesville and Savannah. Stock range is excellent ; 
hogs and cattle do well the year round, and with but little feed they can be 
kept in fine condition through the winter. The timber in this section is of 
great variety and fine quality. All the trees of Florida and, indeed, of most 
of the States, can be found represented. Two large lumber mills do a very 
fine busiacos. An abundance of sand, lime and fossiliferous rock is found in 
this section, the latter of which could be utilized. 

Hammock Eidge, four miles southwest of Gainesville, on the line of 
the Florida Railway and Navigation Company, is in the midst of one of the 
finest vegetable sections in the county. It has been claimed, and it is believed 
to be absolutely true, that no point in the State produces as many vegetables 
from the same area of land, and none plant as many acres as in this imme- 
diate locality. The people are industrious and find their business of vegeta- 
ble growing to be very profitable. 

Hawthokne is situated at the junction of the Florida Southern and 
Florida Railway and Navigation Company's Railroads, nineteen miles east of 
Gainesville and fourteen miles south of "Waldo, one hundred and forty-four 
feet above the St. Johns river at Palatka, and ninety feet above the celebrated 
Orange Lake, a short distance south. Within a radius of twenty miles lie 
numerous wild oraage groves, forming nearly a circle around the town. All 
the necessaries and conveniences of life are to be had at Hawthorne. Double 
daily mails, two lines of telegraph, hotels, stores of several classes, ginning 
and manufacturing establishments, a photograph gallery, nursery, two livery 
stables, marble dealer, land and insurance agents, painters, carpenters, etc., 
represent the leading business interests of the town. A good number of pub- 
lic schools and the Hawthorne Academy furnish educational facilities. The 
Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian are the leading religious denominations. 

The lands lying east of the town are high and rolling, with small bodies 
of rich hammock lying along the shores of the many fine lakes near at hand. 
On the west the lands are lower and more level, but affording sites for many 
good farms and fine orange groves. Magnesia Springs, on the west, and Orange 
Springs, on the south, are accessible from this point, and are well known for 
their healing virtues. The rolling character of this region is shown by the 
six water mills now in operation, and other mill sites not yet improved. 

Island Grove is a station and post-olfice on the Florida Railway and 
Navigation Company's Railroad, situated on the extreme southern line of the 
county. It bas two stores and one saw mill. It is on an island, which is 
seven miles long and two miles wide. The lands are pine and hammock of 
fine quality, growing fine ci'ops of oranges, corn, cotton and vegetables. From 
this island about ten thousand boxes of oranges and ten thousand crates of 
vegetables are annually shipped. Churches and schools are convenient. 

JoNESViiiiiE is sixteen miles west of Gainesville, midway between the 

36 




A CYPRESS SWAMP. 



Savannah, Florida and Western and the Florida Railway and Navigation Com- 
pany's Railroads. The Gainesville and Tallahassee road is expected to be 
constructed through the place. The lands are fertile and produce well cot- 
ton, corn, tobacco, potatoes and, in fact, all kinds of fruits and vegetables 
grown in other sections of the county. In this locality begins that vast terri- 
tory of pine timber as yet in its virgin state. This section is particularly 
healthy, containing no prairies nor ponds to produce malaria. The people 
are hospitable and industrious, and extend a cordial welcome to all good per- 
manent settlers. 

Kanapaha, a station and post-office on the Florida Railway and Naviga- 
tion Company's road, west of Arredondo, is surrounded by a good pine country. 

La Ckosse is situated almost due north of Gainesville and about six- 
teen miles distant. It is in a beautiful and rich agricultural section, hammock 
and pine lands interspersed. This vicinity only lacks railroad facilities to 
bring it prominently into notice and to secure to its inhabitants abundant 
riches. 

LochiiOOSA, a landing and shipping point upon the lake of the same 
name, is also a station and post office on the Florida Railway and Navigation 
Company's line, about twenty -nine miles south of Waldo. 

Magnesia Springs, about fifteen miles south of Gainesville, and one 
mile from Grove Park, a station on the Florida Southern Railway, is noted 
for its celebrated Magnesia Springs, the medicinal virtues of which are well 
known for kidney complaints, diabetes, etc. ; also noted for its natural fertil- 
izer, in phosphatic rocks, millions of tons of which abound. 

Melkose is prettily located on the southwestern border of Santa Fe 
lake; a little bay makes in, creating a delightful and secluded water resort, 
where bathing, fishing and boating may be enjoyed. There are several stores 
and other industries, two Churches, Baptist and Episcopal, School house, 
two public squares and several fine residences. The land about Melrose is 
especially adapted for orange growing, while the lakes near by serve as a 
protection from frost. 

Mayfield, post office and station on the Savannah, Florida and Western 
Railway, five and a half miles north of Gainesville. Lands are now being 
cleared at this point for the planting of one hundred acres in orange and 
other fruit trees by an incorporated company. 

MiCANOPY is situated near the southern boundary line of Alachua 
County, on the north side of Tuscawilla lake, about fifteen miles from Gaines- 
ville, and on a spur of the Florida Southern Railway. It bears the name 
of one of the greatest chiefs of the Seminole Indians. It was formerly an 
Indian settlement, and the home of old King Payne, Micanopy, Osceola, 
and other noted Indiaa chiefs, until the white people became their con- 
querors and appropriated it to themselves. The surrounding country is high 
and rolling and mostly hammock. All the farm crops of Florida, such as 
corn, oats, sugar-cane, cotton, etc., grow and fruit well on this soil. Truck 
farming is conducted on an extensive and profitable scale. This vicinity is 

38 



the home of the orange, the native or wild trees having oeen found there. 
Some of the largest and most profitable orange groves are located in and 
around the town. Micanopy has three white, Methodist, Baptist and Pres- 
byterian, and three colored Churches. A private Classical and Mathematical 
School and a public School are in a flourishing condition. 

NEWNANSViLiiE is about one mile from Alachua Station, on the Savannah, 
Florida and Western Railway, and is the oldest town in Alachua County. 
The surrounding country is second to none in the State and is well adapted to 
the growth of nearly all the cereals and fruits of a semi-tropical climate. 
The soil of the high hills for the most part is clay mixed with gravel, under- 
lying a thin but rich loam. Tlie country is covered with a heavy growth of 
pine, hickory, live oak, white oak, magnolia and other trees, and is well wa- 
tered by springs and clear water lakes. This is one of the most picturesque 
portions of Florida. The society is good. Merchants are enterprising, and 
churches and schools convenient. Newnansville was the county seat of Al- 
achua County unfil 1856, when the Court House was moved to Gainesville by 
a vote of the people. 

New Gainesville is an addition of and adjoins the city of Gainesville 
on the east. Situated on high pine land, overlooking the business portion of 
the City, with excellent water, broad streets, good soil for gardens and groves, 
in close proximity to churches and schools, and on the line of the Gaines- 
ville City and Suburban street railway, it is indeed a most excellent and beau- 
tiful site for residences. Iq the center of the plot is a park in which it is pro- 
posed to erect a large hotel. Adjoining the town are lots of level pine land 
well suited to the growth of oranges, peaches and pears or the cultivation of 
vegetables or farm crops. 

NoKTH Gainesville is a suburb of the city of Gainesville, extending 
one and a half miles north of the city limits. The citizens are prosperous 
truck growers and raise large quantities of strawberries and vegetables for 
market. There is not a more pleasant settlement or a better class of citizens 
to be found anywhere. They are honest, enterprising and industrious, and 
their homes are the admiration of visitors. 

Okange Heights, on the Florida Eailway and Navigation Co.'s road, 
sixty-five miles south of Jacksonville, is nicely located on gently rolling land. 
The town is scarcely two years old, has about 300 inhabitants, three stores, 
one hotel, express office, photographer, church, school house, blacksmith 
shop, cotton gin, novelty works, saw and planing mill. The population em- 
braces representatives from most every state in the Union, and are an intel- 
ligent, sober and energetic people. The soil is a dark pine with a large per 
cent, of humus and is well adapted to the successful growing of fruits, sugar- 
cane, rice and vegetables. 

Okion, on the Savanah, Florida and Western Railway, twentj^-three miles 
north of Gainesville, has a population of about 150 — four general stores, one 
saw-mill, one cotton gin, one blacksmith shop, two chui'ches, public schools, 
and one hotel. The land is high and dry, and the pine timber good. A great 

39 



many hard stone are to be found in this section, and hundreds of carloads 
have been and are now being carried from this point to be utilized on the 
jetties at the mouth of the St. Johns river. The post office at this station is 
called Santeffey, from the name of the river which flows near it. 

Palmek, formerly known as Batonville, lies midway between Arredondo 
and Archer, on the Florida Kailroad and Navigation Company's line, and is 
surrounded by a high, dry piae country. 

Paeadise is a new town four miles north of Gainesville on the Savannah, 
Florida and Western Railway. A birds-eye view of this town would show 
high rolling pine land, with three beautiful streams of water meanderiag 
from north to south in a southeasterly direction, the margin of each stream 
being lined with oak, hickory, magnolia, gum, bay, ash and cherry ; also pei"- 
simmon trees and wild grape vines in abundance. This was one of the first 
sections entered in the Arredondo Grant, over fifty years ago, when people had 
the choice of all the lands in this vicinity, showing conclusively that they 
considered nothing better. A portion of this section, some 250 acres, has 
been under cultivation the past thirty or forty years, and about that time one 
of the beautiful fields was called Paradise, hence the name of Paradise Station. 

Persons desiring to make a home, and wishing to raise a diversity of 
crops and fruits, will certainly be fully satisfied by comiug to Paradise, as it 
has been demonstrated that no better lands can be found in the State for the 
production of strawberries, oranges, peaches, pears, etc. Although this 
town is less than three years old it has twenty residences already occupied. 
There is also a station house on the railroad, post office and public school 
house. An intelligent physician who has resided in the town for two years, 
says that he can cheerfully recommend tiie place as being freer from malaria 
and chills and fever than any place he knows of in the South. 

EocHELXiE, at the junction of the main branch with the Southern divi- 
sion of the Florida Southern Eailway, is a thriving little town of about one 
hundred and seventy-five inhabitants ten miles from Gainesville ; has a hotel, 
two schools, two churches, two general stores, cotton and grist mill. It is 
surrounded by many profitable vegetable farms ; twenty four trains on the 
Florida Southern Eailway pass this point daily. 

EuTLEDGE. — This is a new town five miles west of Gainesville on the line of 
the Gainesville, Tallahassee and Western Eailroad, and three miles from Para- 
dise station on the Savannah Florida and Western Eailway. Three stores, a 
post-office, a large boarding-house, a few comfortable dwellings, a dozen or 
more buildings altogether, as yet constitute the town. The beautiful rolling 
land and rich hammock soil, combined with unusual healthfulness, has highly 
commended this section to all who have examined it. Asa temporary retreat 
in winter or as a permanent residence it offers advantages particularly to the 
Northern or Western farmer, for here he finds soil that is really suited for 
general farming as well as for mere gardening or fruit raising. Some of the 
finest tobacco was grown here last season that was ever raised in the State. 
Corn, oats, rye, cotton, tobacco, sugar-cane, as well as all the fruits and vege- 

40 



tables are raised in abundance. Botli natural and cultivated grasses do well 
and afford good feed the year round for stock. Probably some of the best 
grade of cattle in the county will be found in this neighborhood. 

SuTHEELAND, a station on the Florida Railway and Navigation Railroad, 
between Arredondo and Archer, is surrounded by a good high pine country. 

Tacoma. — Lying between Alachua lake on the north, affording excellent 
water protection, and Levy lake on the South, is situated a cluster of small 
farms of from ten to forty or more acres, locally known as Tacoma. Several 




A FLORIDA LAKE SHOEE. 

hundred acres of fine orange groves flourishing and well-cared for are situated 
in this locality. Large quantities of vegetables are shipped from this settle- 
ment via Micanopy, the post-office town, distant from three to six miles. 

Tbenton, formerly known as Joppa, is about twenty-five miles west 
of Gainesville, in a rich country of beautiful rolling pine land, some of it the 
best in the county for the pi-oduction of Sea-Island cotton. 

WaijDO, the second town in importance in the county, occupies an im- 
portant position as the Junction of the Southern with the Central Division of 
the Florida Railway and Navigation Railroad, and is destined to be a place of 
importance. Although the place looks flat and level it is one hundred and 
fifty feet above the sea l«vei by actual measurement. East of the town lies 
a perfect net-work of lakes, large and small, which gives to the country round 
about its significant name of the Central Lake Region of the State. Lying 
but a few miles distant to the east is Lake Santa Fe, the largest, and between 

41 



it and Waldo is Lake Alto, considerably smaller. The Sante Fe Canal, from 
Waldo into and across Lake Alto and thence into Lake Santa Fe, gives access 
by means of a steamer to one of the finest agricultural sections of the State. 
The shore line thus reached is some thirty miles in extent, and embraces con- 
nection with Melrose, at the eastern extremity of the lake, from whence to 
Green Cove Springs, on the St. Johns river, a line of railway is in course of 
construction. It is a fact no less remarkable than well authenticated that 
the orange groves in the vicinity of Waldo have scarcely suffered from the 
effects of the severe cold spells which have visited the State during the past 
few years. This apparent immunity from frost has been no doubt truly at- 
tributed to the presence of natural protection, such as bodies of water, forests, 
etc. 

The soil in this vicinity is a dark, sandy loam, underlaid with red clay, 
well adapted to the growth of grapes and specially suited for the growth of 
all semi-tropical fruits that are adapted to the climate. Nowhere in the 




ORANGE GEOVE AND EESIDENCE. 

State will finer or better orange groves be found than can be seen around 
Waldo. Japan plums, Japan persimmons and grapes of both European and 
native varieties all flourish well and reward the orchardist and horticulturist 
with splendid crops every year. The water is pure free stone, clear and 
sparkling, no admixture of lime or foreign substance of any kind. The 
health of the place is unsurpassed. Malarial fevers rare, chills and fevers 
unknown. No epidemic has ever raged in the town ; twice has yellow fever 
been brought there and in each instaree it was confined to the patients that 
came with it. After this experience, it is needless to add, that with the eleva- 
tion, pure air and clear sparkling water, the most timid need have nothing to fear 

42 



in this locality on tlie score of healtli. "Waldo has six stores, seven churches, 
white and colored, three public and one private school. A cold storage 
warehouae is now being constructed at a cost of about $50,000. The rail- 
road now being constructed from Macon, Georgia, to Palatka will pass 
through Waldo, giving to the town and vicinity a competing transportation 
line. 

WiNDSOK is situated on the east bank of Lake Newnan, a charming lake, 
twenty-five miles in circumference, surrounded by semi-tropical scenery and 
abounding in fish. It is ten miles east of Gainesville and lies between the rail- 
road stations — Eochelle, on the Florida Southern, three miles south, and Camp- 







SAIL BOATS ON A FLOKIDA LAKE. 

ville, on the Florida Kail way and Navigation Koad three miles east. Another 
recent railroad survey, a branch of the Jacksonville and Gulf Air Line, goes 
right through the town. By steamer on the lake, communication may be had 
with Gainesville. The town is only three years old, has about sixty residences, 
two stores, one drug store, one flourishing school with two teachers, one 
Methodist church, two saw and planing-mills, and one large tub and pail fac- 
tory. "Windsor is in a good farming and vegetable region and first-class fruit 
land. As adjuncts for a beautiful home, the water-oak and live-oak grow here 

43 



to great proportions and beautiful grassy lawns can be grown of Bermuda 
grass. The town has beautiful oak-shaded avenues, upon which are choice 
lots for quiet, restful homes with orchards and gardens. 

YuiiEE is a station and post-office on the Florida Railway and Navigation 
Eailroad, between Gainesville and "Waldo, five miles south-west of the latter 
place. 



CONCLUSION. 

After a thorough investigation of the material resources of the State of 
Florida, and particularly of the County of Alachua, the assertion is made 
without the fear of contradiction that can be substantiated, that there is np 
State in the Union where an industrious poor man or a man of limited means 
can more easily acquire a prosperous home and live comfortably with less ex- 
ertion, or where capital may be invested with certainty of larger profits than 
in the State of Florida ; and while not disposed to draw any invidious dis- 
tinction between Alachua and other Counties in the State, it is insisted that 
no other locality offers greater and in very many respects equal advantages. 

The statistics show that more money per acre is realized from Florida 
in crops from its cultivated area, than from any other similarly sized territory 
in the country. The soil of Florida has been considered poor, but many sec- 
tions are as rich as can be found elsewhere, and even the poor lands respond 
to judicious fertilizing in a way that is amazing. 

In Florida, Nature works with the farmer. She gives him a genial climate 
and the whole year for a season ; she sends him rain just when he most re- 
quires it, and permits no drought at all ; snow and ice never come to injure 
or delay his work ; he needs no cellars and he therefore builds none ; the 
months of enforced idleness and wasted time that burden the Northern 
farmer and consume his substance are not within the Floridian's experience. 

While many who come to Florida succeed without capital to start with, yet 
he who can bring a few hundred or a few thousand dollars will have a great 
advantage. So large a proportion of the penniless class have rushed to the 
" Land of Flowers" that there is hardly enough capital to keep them always 
employed, hence the grievous and gloomy letters that find their way into 
Northern papers. Those looking for " genteel " positions, clerkships, etc., 
will be liable to disappointment in this or any other new country, but pros- 
perity awaits the energetic and capable tiller of the soil or tradesman. 

To the young, just starting upon the voyage of life, to the middle-aged and 
to the old, who may desire a home in a sunny clime, where health and pros- 
perity may be secured, where the young before the meridian of life may feel 
assured of a home, where the middl«-aged may make such provision for him- 
self and family as to feel that his declining j^ears are provided for, and where 
the old may put on a new lease of life amid the orange groves of a salubrious 
clime, the advice is given, come to Alachua and investigate the advantages 
vfhich she offers. 

44 



H. F. BUTTON, 1 TjiPTTnT « s rn H. G. ROBINSON, 

W. Q. ROBINSON, | J- «• NICHOLS & CO. Resident Partner, 

Gainesville, Fla. Beaufort, S. C. Pomfret, Conn. 

* ESTABLISHED IN 1873. <> 

H. K. DUTTON & CO., 
^ BANKERS, ^ 

OAINKSVIIvIvE, KLORIDA, 

Transact a General Banking Business. Deposits received, Collections 
Made and Proceeds Promptly Remitted. 

Correspondents. — National Citizens' Bank, New York; Merchants' 
National Bank, Savannah ; First National Bank of Florida, Jacksonville. 



SEA ISLAND COTTON GINNERS 

AND DEALERS IN 

SKA ISl^AND COTTON, 

English and American Sea Island Cotton Bagging, Eeady Made Bags, 
Crushed Cotton Seed Fertilizer, 

"DIXIE" COTTON GIN ROLLERS, 

American and Eaglish Cotton Gins, Ginners' Supplies, etc. 

AGENCIES THROUGHOUT THE STATES OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 
GEORGIA AND FLORIDA. 



U. S. LAND OFFICE. 

So much trouble has been experienced in getting business promptly conducted with 
the United States Laud Office, at Gainesville, in cases where the services of an Agent or 
Attorney were reqtulred, that we have employed an Attorney particularly for this bus- 
iness. 

Special attention given to all business Jbetore both the Local and General Land 
Offices. This department will be under the immediate supervision of Mr. I. E. Webster, 
who for the past Ave years has had charge of the contest department of the U. S. Land 
Office, at Gainesville, Fla., and has a thorough knowledge of the U. S. Land Laws. 

Entries made, lands bought, documents flled, contest information furn ished, and 
maps and plats ordered. 

;8®=-Contest Oases and procuring of Land Patents a specialty. Commissions moderS 
ate. Correspondence invited. 

45 



4i 



* RELIABLE INFORMATION 

FOR ALL APPLICANTS, 
In regard to Any Pabt of Florida as to Soil, Adaptability, Health, Etc., 

by addressing, 

SKTH WILSON, 

Gen. State Agt. for the American Real Estate World for the State of Florida. 

Correspondence solicited. 

ARCHER, Alachua County, Florida. 

^ B U R P K EfS^ 



BURPEE'S FARM ANNUAL 

FOR 1888, FREE 

to all who write for It. Send address on postal for the most 
complete Catalogue published, to 

W. ATLEE BURPEE & CO., Philadelphia. Pa. 

It is a Handsome Book of 128 pages, with hundreds of illus- 
trations, two Colored Plates, and tells all about the 

BEST GARDEN, FIIRM AND FLOWER SEEDS, 

Bulbs, Plants, and valuable New Books on Garden Topics. It 

describes Rare Novelties in Vegetables and Flowers 

of real value, which cannot be obtained 

elsewhere. 



^^f^^S K K D S.^--^^ 

GAINESVILLE FOnNDRY AND MACHINE SHOPS. 

Iron Fencing for- Cemeteries, Columns, Mantels and all kinds 

of Castings made to Order. 

REPAIRING MILL MACHINERY A SPECIALTY. 

MANUFACTUEER OF 

COTTON GIMS, SUGAR IvriLIvS, ETC. 

W. D. ROBERTS, Proprietor, Gainesville, Ela. 

46 



SAVANNAH, 



FLORIDA AND WESTERN 



RAILWAY, 



THE FAMOUS 



WAYCROSS SHORT LINE 



AND 



FLORIDA DISPATCH LINE. 



The Shortest, Quickest and Best Route 

for Passengers and Freight to and from Jacksonville, Gainesville and all points 

in Florida. 



FOUR EXPRESS PASSENGER TRAINS DAILY. 



FAST FREIGHT SERVICE BY EXPRESS TRAINS. 

C. D. OWENS, Traffic Man. WM. P. HARDEE, Gen. Frt. and Pass. Agt, 

W. M. DAVIDSON, Gen. Traffic Agt. for Florida. 

47 



Florida Fertilizer MTg Co, 

MANUFACTTJKEKS OF 

HIOM ORADK 

BONE FERTILIZERS. 

OFFICE AND WOEKS, 

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA. 



BONES. 

The Florida Fertilizer Manufacturing Company will pay in cash the high- 
est market price for all 

CLEAN AND DRY BONES, 

delivered at their works in Gainesville, Florida. No green bones wanted. 

WE INVITE CORRESPONDENCE UPON THE SUBJECT. 



PHILLIP MILLER, 



WHOLESALE AND RETAIL DEALER IN- 



GROCKRIKS , 



' \ ^^_^_x '^ 



Gainesville, Florida. 



48 



3. W. ASHBt. S. T. FINLEV. B. A. THRABHEfi. 

* A8HBY, FINLEY X THRASHER. * 

ittorneys and Counselors-at-Law, 

Cop. West Main and Mechanic Sts. . . GAINESVILLE, FLA. 

Wm. Wade Hampton. Chas. O. Hamptoh. 

HAMPTON S HAMPTON, 
ITTORNEYS-iT-LiW, 

GAINESVILLE, . FLORIDA. 

Practice in State and Federal Courts. 

THos. F. Kino, Aug. H. King, 

Gainesville, Fla. Jacksonville, Fla. 



KING & KING,: 



ATTO RN E YS- AT- LAW. 

R. FENWICK TAYLOB. SYD. L. OAETEK. 

TAYLOR & CARTKR, 

Attorneys-at-Law, 
Williams Block, . Gainesville, Fla. 

Practice in State and Federal Courts and in U. 8. Land Office. 

OSBORN HOTEL, 

QAINESVILLE, KLORIDA. 
MRS. T. W. TOMPKIES, Proprietress. 

Well located. Pleasant and homelike I^o pains spared to make guests com- 
fortable. 



COMMERCIAL COTTAGE, 

QAINESAILLE, Fi^LORIDA, 

MRS. ANNA A. ^A/'ILLIAMS, Proprietress. 

Table first-class. Centrally situated. Pleasantest rooms in the city. Only hotel 
with bath room attached. Rates $2 per day. Special rates by the week. 

49 



H. E. Benson, Louis T. Koux. N. E. Benson. 

BENSON, ROUX & CO., 
Blacksmiths ^ and ^ Wagon ^ Makers. 

jm- HOKSE SHOEING A SPECIALTY. ■=&■ 
GAINESVIIvLE;, . . . FLORIDA.. 



J. A. MEADOB. A. O. STEENBURG. 

rvIEADOR & STEKNBURO, 

DEALERS IN 

HARDWARE, TINWARE, WOOD AND WILLOW-WARE, 
Mill Supplies.Palnta and Oils, Glass and Fishing Tackle, also Sporting Goods of all kinds. 

J. D. MATHESON, 

G AI N B S VI IvLE^, K-IvORIDA. 

^ Shoe * and * Leather ^ Store. * 

MY SPECIALTIES : 

Boots and Shoes In all Styles and Grades, Findings and Tools for Shoe Makers, Leather 

and Rubher Belting, Calf Skins, Trunks, Hats, Umbrellas and 

Hosiery, Harness and Saddles. 



CENTRJIL CITY ICE 



>^^ 



AND 



COLD STORftGE GO. 



W. H. H. FOLK. C. J. MIXSON. 

* FOLK & MIXSON, * 
Meat Ma,rket. 

We are prepared to fill orders and deliver meats in any cut desired. A full stock of 
fresh meats always on hand. A trial is all that we ask. 

Post Office Block, . . G-AINESVILLE, FLORIDA. 

SCHRODER & SADLER, 

JVIANUKACTURERS OK CIQAR.S, 

HAVANA CIGARS A SPECIALTY. 

Orders promptly filled and honestly, with stock desired. Will make contracts for 
large quantities on favorable terms. 

Factory No. 112, . . . GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA. 

50 



DAII^ MORNING REC^^ 

PUBLISHED BY TSE 

^ RECORD PUBLISHING COMPANY, -^ 

QAINKSVILLE, KLORIDA. 

$5.00 PER ANNUM. 



FLORIDA RECORD, 

The Leading Weekly of Alachua County. 
$1.00 PER ^^NNuivn. 



The best advertising mediums in existence for reaching the people of Central Florida, the gar- 
den spot of the State. A.llve, (irogressive, soundly democratic and up with the' times, 
their circulation exceeds that of all other county papers combined. 

With the finest oface in Florida, the only steam power press in the county, and one 
of the best in the State and with a job ofB.ce stocked and equipped bountifully and with 
the best of material, we are prepared to meet all demands. 

Sample copies free. Address 

RECORD PUBLISHING CO., . . GAINESVILLE, FLA. 



^ ^GAINESVILLE NURSERIES. 

-..,,.- ESTABLISHED IN 1878. 

All leading varieties of fruit trees suitable to Florida soil and climate, In stocii. 
NEW FRUITS A SPECIALTY. Prices reasonable. Circulars free on application. 

ToRTER & CESSNA, Manao-ers, Gainesville, Fla. 



^ EAST FLORIDA NURSERIES. * 
GEO. B. CELLON, Manager, 

QAINESVIL.LE, KLORIDA. 

Peaches, Plums, Pears and Persimmons (Japan) in quantities to suit purchasers, at 
LOWEST CASH PRICES. Best varieties of Strawberry Plants also in stock. 

CATALOGUE FREE, 
5X 



L. K. RAWI-INS, 




REAL ESTATE S LOANS; 




ONLY SET OF flBSTRftCT BOOKS IN ALACHUA COUNTY, 



Office, Court House, 



GAINESVILLE. 



FLORIDA. 



YILUIBLE LiNDS FOR SiLE IT A SiCRIFICE. 

5,000 acres of rich Pine and Hammock Lands, situated in the best farming and 
fruit growing section of the State, comprising several small farms under cultivation and 
some of the best oak and hickory timbered lands in Florida. All lying In and around 
Newnansville, fifteen miles north of Gainesville, in Alachua county. Land peculiarly 
adapted to the vegetable and fruit culture, and will be sold on easy terms and at a great 
bargain. For further information call on or address, 

F. P OLMSTEAD, Or, O-. P. 0LM3TEAD, 

Newnansville, Fla. G-ainesville, Fli. 



A SPLENDD OPPORTUNITY TO GET A MODEL FLORIDA HOME, 

at a low price if purchased at once, in the Orange Belt and Clear Lake Begion. The 
House has eighteen large, airy rooms with fire places, and a double veranda extends en- 
tirely around the house. One hour's ride from Palatka, the same distance from Gaiups- 
ville. Nine acres of land with Barn, Store House and Out Buildings will be sold with 
the property. For further information call on or address, 

D. E. COOPER, 



Gainesville, Florida. 



VALUABLK KARM. 

For sale, an improved farm of 40 acres, situated five miles west of Gainesvilln, three 
miles from Railroad Station. Rich hammock land, fenced; two two-story dwelliags, 
store and post offtce ; barn, stables, tools, stock, etc., all complete; orange grove set out. 

For terms etc., address, 



F. 6. DUNHAM, 



Gainesville, Florida, 



§3 







BEFORE SETTLING IN FLORIDA, BE SURE TO VISIT 

i » WINDSOR. » I 



Very healthy. Beautifully situated on Lake Newnan. Choice lots, Fruit 
and Vegetable lands cheap. 

Strangers visiting Windsor must not confound the town proper, where 
post office and public school are, with any suburban addition claiming the 
same name. 

For full particulars address either, 

W. J. WALKER, G. W. KELLEY, 

J. L. KELLEY, G. D. WAISON, 

WINDSOR, FLORIDA. 



GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA. 

CAPITAL, $100,000. 
DR. J. A. McDonald, Pres., Boston, Mass, 

' GEO. H. SUTHERLAND, Sec, Gainesville, Fla. 

S. W. TROWBRIDGE, Treas., 5 Court St., Boston, Mass. 



A RARE CHANCE KOR INVESTMENT. 



ENORMOUS' DIVIDENDS ASSURED. 

Send to either Secretary or Treasurer for Circular. 

53 




ALAcmiiND MD Tom IGENCi; 



GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA. 



■ AGENTS FOR THE SALE OF 



1^ 



Florida Southern Railway Lands,; ^^- 

FLORIDA COMMERCIflL m LMDS, 

St. Johns and Lake Eustis Railroad Lands, 

AND LANDS OWNED BY PRIVATE PARTIES, AGGREGATING 



OVKR 

3,000,000 

ACRES. 




OVER 

3,000,000 

ACRES. 



Which win be sold In tracts of from one acre to 20,000 acres, ana'' Ifarrging In jprlce 
from $1 an acre upwards. 

These lands are located In nearly every county in the State; and will fill all require- 
ments — agriculture, grazing, groves, homes, etc'. Pine, Cypress, Cedar and other tim- 

""'loans placed on favorable terms 

and with acceptable secnrity. 

We can offer Syndicates extraordinary inducement's for Investment. 

S. B. CHIPIN, Manager, W. H. MELRiTH, Traveling Partner, 



GAINESVILLE. FLA. 



FAIRBANKS, FLA, 



5i 



WINDSOR FlvORIDA 




a. B. QRIKKIN & SON, 
either at Jacksonville or "Windsor. 

55 



Is one of the prettiest 
and healthies places In 
the State, with a popu- 
lation of about four 
hundred, and contain- 
ing eighty houses, four 
stores, two saw mills, 
two planing mills, a 
large tub and pail fac- 
tory, the only one in the 
State, two public halls, 
one church. Broad 
streets, set with shade 
trees, add wonderfully 
to its natural beauty. 
It is located in Alachua 
county, one of the best 
counties (if not the best) 
in the State. It is re- 
markably healthy, has 
good water, and the 
Ian d is superior to most 
in the State, well adap- 
ted to the growth of the 
orange, peach, quince, 
plum, flg and other 
small fruits; vegeta- 
bles of most kinds do 
remarkably well here 
and are raised largely 
for shipment and local 
markets. The beauti- 
ful Lake Newnan, some 
thirty miles in circum- 
ference, affords a great 
abundance of fine fish, 
and an excellent oppor- 
tunity for boating, 
hunting, etc. 

If you » ant a home In 
Florida, where you can 
have health and raise 
something to live on, 
we would invite you to 
visit Windsor. To do so, 
call at our ofQce in Hub- 
bard Block, Pine street, 
Jacksonville, and get a 
ticket either to Ko- 
chelle, on the Florida 
Southern Railway or to 
Campvllle, on the Flor- 
ida Railway and Navi- 
gation Go's line, either 
running some three 
miles distant. 

Land, either cleared 
or timbered, can be had 
in large or small tracts 
at moderate prices, and 
fine large lots in the 
village for building. 
We will make this re- 
markable offer : To any 
one who will build a 
house to cost not less 
than $1,000, we will do- 
nate a fine lot of about 
one acre, worth $500. 
We think If you will 
take the trouble to come 
and see us you will be 
pleased with Windsor. 

For any further Infor- 
mation address, 



FLORIDA LANDS! FLORIDA LANDS! 

Iv. Nl. HODOKINS, 

LAND ATTORNEY, REAL ESTATE AND PECHASING A&ENT. 

For three years Patent and Corresponding Clerk in the U. S. Land Office, Gainesville, Fla. 

Has a complete list of all the vacant U.S. Government Lands in the State that are 
subject to cash purchase at the United States price of $1.25 per acre. Perfect titles and 
full possession given at date of purchase. Some of the best Government Lands, in the 'r- 

State are situated in Alachua county and are near railroads and fine growing towns and ■-" 

are worth from $10 to $30 per acre and are increasing in value all the time ; also a full 
list of Government Lands that are subject to Homestead and Preemption Entry. Infor- 
mation pertaining to these lands cheerfully furnished. Correspondence solicited, sat- 
isfaction guaranteed. Apply to or address, 

L. M. HODG-KINS, G-ainesville, Florida. 

H. N. JONES, 

* FLORIST, * 
GAINESVILLE FLA. 

KINEST STOCK IN THE STATED 



56 



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